American Tourist Arrested For Smashing Roman Artifacts at the Israel Museum

An American tourist was arrested at the Israel Museum after allegedly hurling second-century Roman artifacts to the floor, raising concerns about the security of the collection, the Associated Press reported Friday. 

Israeli police identified the accused vandal as a 40-year-old Jewish American tourist who “suggested” during the interrogation that he had destroyed the statues because he believed them “to be idolatrous and contrary to the Torah,” per the AP. The suspect’s lawyer reportedly denied that his client was motivated by “religious fanaticism”, and instead said that he was suffering from a mental phenomenon called “Jerusalem syndrome”.

According to a paper published in the British Journal of Psychiatry in 2000, Jerusalem syndrome is a psychotic state that manifests in religious pilgrims as delusions of grandeur and obsessive ideas. It’s a bit of a controversial diagnosis, as it’s almost always diagnosed in individuals with pre-existing mental disorders such as schizophrenia. The suspect, who was left unnamed by authorities, has been ordered to undergo psychiatric evaluation.

The Israel Museum described the vandalism in a statement as a “troubling and unusual event,” and added that it “condemns all forms of violence and hopes such incidents will not recur.”

Video posted by the AP shows a marble bust of the goddess Athena thrown off its pedestal and a sculpture of a pagan deity shattered to pieces. Both artifacts are being restored, a museum spokesperson said. The monetary value of the works, as well as the price of the restoration, were not disclosed.

The vandalism at the museum is only the latest in a string of attacks on cultural heritage in the city that has deepened animosities between the Jewish majority and Christian minority. In February, a statue of Jesus at a Christian holy site in Jerusalem’s Old City was defaced by another Jewish American tourist while in January, a group of Jewish teenagers defaced Christian tombstones in a local cemetery. 

As of this morning, the museum has reopened its doors and is operating as usual.